Today I begin a new year in retrospect as I examine some select sci-fi short stories from 1994 as they appeared in the Gardner Dozois-edited anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Twelfth Annual Collection. This was the year of the gimmicky mid-term elections in our country, where the party opposing the previously elected president comes up with some dumbass slogan to rally their own forces, along with the easily media-manipulated.part of the electorate, to retake Congress. In this election the president was Bill Clinton, and the insurgents were Republicans with Newt Gingrich leading the charge with his "Contract with America"...transformed by opponents into "Contract on America". The switch in congressional power, sustained in two subsequent elections, would lead to Clinton's eventual politically motivated impeachment in 1999. But back to those stories from '94...
FORGIVENESS DAY by Ursula K. le Guin
In le Guin's science fiction "universe"...several writers, like Isaac Asimov and Cordwainer Smith, created their own future scenarios in rather great detail. A female envoy from the Ekumens, this story's version of Star Trek's Federation of Planets, is assigned an outlying world that seeks admission to their body. Only problem is that they have a highly stratified social order, with slavery a prominent element. The envoy is very annoyed with the standoffish officer provided for her protection...but then all hell breaks loose and it's a case of who is double-crossing who. It's actually a novella and, as such, tended to drag a bit...but I liked the outcome...
THE REMORAS by Robert Reed
This is a brilliant tale that leads to an anticipated conclusion but then veers off to something entirely different...yet had I been more attentive to the beginning I wouldn't have been so surprised. On a humungous, planet-sized ship in the distant future, people have attained immortality through genetic manipulation. One such woman lives in luxury with her recent husband...but then a representative of a very deformed subclass of human one day visits her home to demand her husband pay off a debt. Sympathetic to the visitor although taken aback at his appearance, she goes to the ship's hull where he and others of his kind work on the exterior in space. One important lesson from this story is that you can't always go by appearances...
NEKROPOLIS by Maureen F. McHugh
In a future society where biologically induced voluntary servitude based on personal bonding, called "jessing", is prevalent, one such servant is having second thoughts about her choice after she is paired up with a young, "manufactured" human male whom she initially regards as no more than an abominable machine. Soon she discovers he has more human feeling and compassion that the so-called "real" people she works for and around. A depressing look at a potential future? I hope not but you can never tell...
Next week I continue reviewing science fiction from 1994...
No comments:
Post a Comment